Pad Thai

Ready in: 20 minutes

Ingredients for two:

100g of flat rice noodles

A hand full of green onions, cut into 1" long

A hand full of bean sprouts

A hand full of bell peppers

1/4 tomato, cut into wedges

A hand full of tofu, cut into small cubes

Shrimp, cooked, as many as you like

Cilantro, as much as you like

1/4 green lime

2 cloves of garlic, minced

[Prepare in a cup]

2 tablespoons of fish sauce 

2 tablespoons of oyster sauce

2 tablespoons of sugar

1 tablespoon of rice vinegar

Step 1:  Soak your noodles in water until it softens. Cut them so they are not so long to eat.

Step 2: Prepare vegetables.  

Step 3: In a pan, heat up some oil and garlic, and cook vegetables and tofu except bean sprouts.

Step 4: Add noodles and bean sprouts, mix all well.

Step 5: Add the sauce and coat it well in the pan. Add cooked shrimp and serve.

Tan Tan Tofu Nabe - Spicy Tan Tan Tofu Hot Pot with Miso & Sesame Sauce

Nothing cannot go wrong with a hot meal on a cold rainy day.

Ready in: 10 minutes

Ingredients for two:
[Sauce, prepare in a bowl]
1 tablespoon of miso paste
1/2 teaspoons of sugar
2 tablespoons of grind sesame seeds
1 teaspoon of chili sauce
1/2 teaspoons of grind garlic
1/2 teaspoons of grind ginger
1/2 tablespoons of sesame oil

[Soup, prepare in a pon]
400cc water
1/2 teaspoons of chicken stock powder

bok choi
green onions
1 block of Tofu
Pork or chicken meatballs, option

Step 1: Put soup, tofu and vegetables in a pot, and boil it.

Step 2: Mix ingredients for the sauce

Step 3: Serve

Teriyaki Raisu Baga- Rice Burger with Teriyaki Sauce

I was talking to my colleague, who loves BBQs, about a hamburger. I told him that I've never enjoyed it, and don't know how to enjoy it. Maybe it's the bun, or the meat. I don't know....

He said "You can enjoy it with the way you do with other food!"

Why don't I try that! I enjoy rice and soy sauce!

The result....for the first time in my life, I really enjoyed the "burger"!

I used tofu burgers.

Ready in: 15 minutes with cooked rice and burger

Ingredients for two:
2 cups of cooked Sushi rice
2 cooked burgers
1 avocado
2 slices of tomato
some sliced cucumber
1 Nori sheet-cut into 1/4
some salad to go on the side
<Baking Scauce- Prepare in a cup>
1 tablespoon of soy sauce
1 tablespoon of miso, if you have
<BBQ Scauce- Prepare in a cup>
1/4 cups of soy sauce
2 tablespoons of sugar
1 tablespoon of Sake

Step 1: Wet your hands and make 4 flat rice cakes in a round shape. Bake them in a pan.

You may want to wet your spatula before flipping them over.



Step 2: Brush Baking Scauce on top of the rice cake both sides. Bake untill they are golden. Put them aside on a plate.

Step 3: In the same pan, put BBQ Scauce to heat up and coat burgers with the sauce.

Step 4: Place eveything on a plate.

Goya Chanpuru- Stir Fry with Bitter Melon (Karella)

Goya, which is known as bitter melon or karella, is my life saver and the best friend that I can share my great memory with.
Goya Chanpuru is a dish that is eaten in the southern part of Japan.

When I graduated college, I wanted to go travel.  Then I though "Why can't I live like I'm on travel?", and moved to Okinawa Island. Everybody thought I lived in a dream.

Okinawa Island is a southern resort island with blue ocean and coconut trees.
According to Wikipedia, Okinawa has....
Population: 1,416,587
Total Area: 2,271.30 km² (876.95 sq mi) on 113 islands

Living on a tropical island is nothing like what you think. I still needed to find a job that I could survive there by myself (literally by myself!!), and to get a place to live.

Well, I was young enough to try any things.

After struggling with their language and culture, I finally got a job and an apartment that had no air conditioner in 40 degree-weather with the tiniest parking space that you could possibly think of! My unit was like a sauna during hot'n steamy summer,  and it had nice'n green mold-lawn on the entire floor during humid typhoon season.

Goya has full of vitamins. It gives you energy to fight in the heat!

I ate Goya every single day.  If there was no Goya, I would't be able to live like "I'm on travel".
I lived 10 minutes away from the beach, went for scuba diving and body board after work, and
traveled to other Okinawan islands on vacation.

I DID live like I was on travel for 5 years!

Ready in: 30 minutes

Ingredients for two:
3 bitter melon
A half pack of bacon or SPAM pork can
1 egg
1 carrot
2 cubes of Tofu
2 tablespoons of soy sauce
2 teaspoons of Dashi stock

Step 1: Cut bitter melon into half.

Step 2: Using a spoon, remove inner from the bitter melon, and slice it.

Step 3: Put some salt to take off bitterness, and leave it for 10 minutes.

Step 4: Cook bacon.

Step 5: Add carrots and bitter melon, and put Dashi stock.

Step 6: Make a scramble egg and mix everything together.

Add soy sauce

Step 7: Add Tofu and mix them well.

Sukiyaki

I've been sitting in front of my computer, thinking how I name this dish in English. There is no perfect explanation or English name for it, other than writing it in alphabets.

I love Sukiyaki not only because it tastes good, but also the history behind it. You might be aware that Japanese history and culture was changed a lot in Meiji period. We opened all the ports and welcomed different culture from outside of Japan. Samurai cut their hair shorter; people started wearing non- Kimono cloths, and eating beef. We started "modernizing" ourselves.

Sukiyaki represented Meiji culture; mix of the Japanese and Western culture.
Now, it has become one of popular Japanese dish.

In the both languages, it should be called Sukiyaki- use just one name to represent the mixed culture.

Ready in: 15 minutes

Ingredients for two:
100 g of Tofu cubes
200g of thin sliced beef
Green onions
Any kinds of vegetables in your fridge (Daikon radish, carrots, mushrooms, Nappa, etc)
Vermicelle
1 beaten egg for each person, it should be eaten raw
Soy sauce
Sugar

Tofu pack

Japanese vermicelle

Step 1: Cut all the vegetables, and prepare beef.

Enoki mushrooms

I usually cut and freeze vegetables, so they are always ready to eat.

Step 2: Heat up a pan or pot, and put some oil in it.

Step 3: Place beef one by one.

Step 4: Add sugar and soy sauce, and cook beef.
<Important> Don't cook vegetables yet.

Step 5: Dip the cooked beef in raw egg, and eat. This is the best part.

Step 6: After enjoying a few sliced beef, now you add vegetables, and simmer them well.

If you have some let over, make lunch with it.

Pour beaten eggs in the pan, and over it till eggs become hard. Put it over rice.

Mabo Dofu- Tofu and Pork in Spicy Gravy

Mabo Dofu is a Japanese style of Szechuan cuisine Mapo Tofu. You can place it on rice and make Mabo Don as fast food.

For the details about fast food, see "Salmon and Avocado on Rice".

Ready in: 20 minutes

Ingredients for two:
400g of Tofu
200g of  minced pork
50g of chopped green onions
2 tablespoons of minced ginger
<Prepare the following in a bowl>

2 tablespoons of soy sauce

100ml water

2 teaspoons of sugar 
1-2 teaspoons of Toban djan, adjust to your liking
1 tablespoon of corn starch


Step 1: Boil water in a bigger pot, which a strainer can fit in.

Step 2: Cut Tofu into small cubes, and then place them in a strainer. Dump the strainer in the pot for about 10 seconds to get rid of bitterness from Tofu.
<Tip> Don't cook tofu, otherwise Tofu will get holes.

Step 3: Cut ginger and green onions.

Step 4: Place meat with oil in a pan, and brown it.
<Tip> Keep moving your spatula, otherwise meat will get chunk.

Step 5: Pour the sauce mix on the meat, and then heat it up.
<Important> Don't heat it up longer, otherwise cornstarch becomes a jelly.

Step 6: Add Tofu, ginger and green onions in the pan. After mixing them evenly, turn off the stove as soon as possible.

<Important> Using your spatula, scoop from the bottom. Try not to break Tofu. 

Serve it with rice and Misso soup